Comp plan review in Saratoga Springs

City officials are reviewing Saratoga Springs’ comprehensive plan, and Sustainable Saratoga, a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable practices and the protection of natural resources, said the consultant working for the Comprehensive Plan Committee has a draft that endangers the “city in the country” concept. A committee meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 19 at the rec center on Vanderbilt Avenue is open to the public.

From Sustainable Saratoga:

All the meat that made “city in the country” real has been removed.

“Sustainable development”–an explicit and central planning principle in the 2001 vision–is no longer mentioned or defined.

All references to the critical “outlying area,” commonly known as the Greenbelt, have been deleted.

The draft implicitly opens up the Greenbelt to changes that could lead to dense development and sprawl that will compete with our successful downtown.